The Eternal Flame Of Unity

Question: How did your teacher Rabash relate to Chanukah?

Answer: Very little was said about Chanukah. We read a little about the holiday from the book of the Ari, The Gate Of Intentions (Shaar Kavanot).

The point is that this holiday doesn’t stem from the Torah itself. Chanukah symbolizes a typical case that from the time of Abraham onwards should continuously repeat itself. It symbolizes the numerous corrections that await us along the spiritual path.

We are in a continuous war against our internal egoistic enemies and should constantly connect and unite against them. Then a miracle takes place in the connection between us, the upper force of love.

Question: Is this why we say Chanu-kah which in Hebrew means a stop along the way?

Answer: A stop along the way is only half of the correction of the ego, of the desire to receive until the level of bestowal. But we have nothing to bestow and so Chanukah symbolizes the ascent above the ego. This ascent is like the flame of a candle that flickers above the ego.

The oil that is absorbed by the wick symbolizes our ego that has to be corrected that way so that in contrast to our nature, it will give its Light. This happens under inner pressure when we intend to connect despite our ego in order to reach complete bestowal. This is the essence of Chanukah.

The burning of the oil symbolizes our self-annulment before each other in the connectionbetween us. The wick is our collective effort to connect and to unite, which lights the fire.

The miracle is when the Light that connects Malchut (our egoistic desires) with Bina (the attribute of bestowal) arrives. Eight days (eight levels) later Malchut attains the attribute of Bina and a new ego begins to grow with which we work in the same manner.

Question: We have to reach a state of unity one way or the other, either along the path of the Light or along the path of suffering. What will happen with Chanukah then?

Answer: All the holidays except for Purim will disappear. In Chanukah we only rise above our ego while in Purim we use it in order to work with the intention of in order to bestow. Here we use all our old ego to the end so that it fully works in love and bestowal. Thus a state like Purim is eternal.

It is a state of upper joy that swallows all the other states and the holidays that match them and so they all disappear.

Purim is the most sublime holiday that symbolizes the end of the correction of humanity.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/17/14

A World Without Borders

The Torah, “Leviticus,” Parshat Kedoshim, 19:23-25: And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as forbidden; three years shall it be as forbidden unto you; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise unto the LORD. But in the fifth year may ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you more richly the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.

Question: What is the intention of division into three, four, and five? What is this gradation within a person?

Answer: A person who is involved in correcting himself has five levels of ego within himself. In the first three levels (0, 1, 2) he can’t feel his egoistic desires yet, just as a little child who is also unconscious of himself. After he goes through these three years, he attains the fourth level, the level of the sacred.

In the fourth level, the level of Bina, he must give all the fruits that he grows in the present level. This is called bestowal in order to bestow. And on the fifth level, his reception will be intended in order to bestow and so on this level, he can consume the fruits of his effort.

In the physical world, when talking about fulfilling a Mitzvah (precept) of consuming fruit, we take into account only what grows within the boundaries of the land of Israel, and not what is outside of the land. So from generation to generation, there have been constant debates about where the true borders of Israel stop. According to the Biblical borders, all of the holdings of King David, which existed even before the first Beit HaMikdash (temple), belong to Israel.

This included quite a wide area that included Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon. And so when we bring fruit that grows from there, a problem is created. On the one hand, the Israelites didn’t grow the fruit, but on the other hand, it is not clear in whose territory they were working. There are a great many questions here, but they don’t affect us since we are involved with spiritual correction not physical correction.

It is said: “And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food.” In spiritual work, when you come to a desire and begin to work with it, it transforms from the level of the still to the vegetative. You can use it in order to bestow, only after you pass it through the first four phases: 0, 1, 2, 3 without using it, for in the fourth phase of Bina, everything is transmitted to the Beit HaMikdash. Only in the last phase is it possible to use it for yourself, because now your reception will be in order to bestow.

Question: Do you suppose that the physical borders of Israel must be like those in the days of King David?

Answer: According to the Talmud, there was a time that the borders of Israel stretched from the Nile on one side, including the Sinai, and on the other side, to Babylon.

I suppose that we don’t need to argue about this at all because the correction that is forcefully approaching us now will, in any case, destroy all the borders and blur them between the different people, their cultures, and all the different forms of life. The correction will unite everything and the mixture of the people will itself become the same Babylon, except corrected.

Question: Why doesn’t this directly affect Israel? Why is the mixture of different people taking place everywhere, whereas Israel is apparently left on the side?

Answer: It is because Israel must be the teacher, the leader of the overall correction, and must provide the demonstration of the correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/09/14

Hanukkah – The Miracle Of Unity

In 170 BCE, the Greeks, led by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, captured theTemple. There was a division between the adherents of Greek philosophy and religion and those who remained loyal to the concept of a single Creator.

Some priests, including the high priest (Cohen Rishon), supported the Greeks. The Jerusalem Temple was desecrated and turned into a sanctuary of Zeus. Severe persecution and forced Hellenization of the population led to the Maccabean revolt, led by Matityahu Hashmonay who issued the call, “He who is for God, follow me!”

The uprising ended with the victory of the Maccabees. Having entered the Temple, they found that the pure oil to light the Menorah candles would last for only one day. But a miracle occurred. The candles burned for eight days and so is called the miracle of Hanukkah.

Question: What does Hanukkah represent from the spiritual point of view?

Answer: The history leading to this holiday begins with Abraham as the founder of the Jewish people. Long before the Maccabees, It was he who first issued the call,  “Whoever is moving towards the Creator – follow me!” Under this motto, he gathered a large group of Babylonians, to whom he taught his approach to the universe, the purpose of life and creation, the higher human destiny, etc.

But most importantly, under the slogan of “unity in the name of unity,” Abraham began tounite those who sided with him because it is in the pursuit of unity that we reveal the upper force of nature, the Creator, which unites us. It forms us into one whole and we become invincible to either external or internal egoism. What Abraham began, the Maccabees, united with each other, continued.

In principle, it is the same action of a rebellion against egoism, only at different levels, and that is why it occurred at different points in history.

Having united people, the Maccabees came to the same state as Abraham and won. To the extent of unity with greater groups of people who joined them, they revealed a greater spiritual force, which was the force of unity, the upper force of bestowal and love. Therefore, they were invincible to egoism, which was personified by the Greeks in this case, in Babylon by the Babylonians, in Egypt by Pharaoh, and later, by the Romans.

Through unity with large groups of people joining them, they recognized more and more spiritual power: the power of unity and the supreme power of love and bestowal. Therefore, they were invincible against the selfishness personified in this case by the Greeks, the Babylonians, Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and later, the Romans.

In general, it is the only fight, a war throughout all generations. And even when we do not have an apparent enemy, our inner enemy always rebels within us, again and again pulling us towards worshiping various idols in our life. We must fight it.

It is easy to draw a parallel between these two wars and today since modern idols are fully exposed as complete nonentities, leading us to some end and we have nothing else to do with them. On the one hand, we are still drawn to them, and on the other hand, we understand that this is temporary, harmful and brings no good results.

Therefore, our behavior is reminiscent of a man who gets drunk, does not know or hear anything, forgets himself,and is disconnected from what is happening. We become immersed in business or other things just to stay occupied, thus imitating a movie hero, a literary character, or just acquaintances who have supposedly succeeded in life. This is the idol  that is so attractive to us.

Question: Do you think that these desires have exhausted themselves?

Answer: No, but I know that all this is temporary and limited. Life itself shows us that. The world is like a theater and we always play a role in it.

There are people who seek nothing. The main thing for them is to live quietly and peacefully, so no one bothers them. But, there are few of them. The majority are pulled by competition, the struggle for a place under the sun, and we begin to pretend that we are business people, running with a briefcase and changing from one plane to another, and in this way, we run to the grave.

Question: Can the miracle of Hanukkah take place nowadays?

Answer: In life there is always a place for a miracle. Every time we connect with each other, the force, which is higher than all the other forces, obstacles, conditions, is manifested, and then there is a miracle before us. We can evoke it, even today.

A miracle is a supernatural phenomenon, but we are able to cause it ourselves, when we wish. Today, if we want to rise above egoism in our unity, then a completely new upper force will be manifested within us, and with its help, we will be able to calm the whole world, arrange everything, and everyone will be fine and easygoing.

Question: What kind of a miracle happened when the candles of the Maccabees were lit?

Answer: Through their unity, the Maccabees attracted the Light that gave them the opportunity to stay in the state of bestowal, love and connection until they began to pull new masses of people towards themselves.

The desires of people who connect with each other in one whole symbolizes the oil, and their gathering in spite of their egoism symbolizes the wick. They burn in their desire to get closer, and when they unite somehow, a light appears within them that support the fire of their desires.

If they begin to be engaged in even greater dissemination and draw towards themselves greater masses of people, then the lamp will burn continuously.

The manifestation of the Light, the upper force, the Creator in the people’s unity is the miracle. Besides that, there are no other miracles because the essence of all miracles is that our unity brings about the manifestation of the inner force, called the property of love, the Creator. It works wonders. The crossing of the Red Sea, the miracle of Hanukkah and the miracle of Purim are always the revelation of the Creator in our unity. Therefore, there is just one technique and it contains nothing complicated. It came to us from Abraham, who first showed how it is realized.

The fact is that we can unite in any manner, but the essence of the miracle is that we unite so that a new upper property appears within us, which is not manifested in any other actions, that raises us to the next level of consciousness, sensation, vision, and existence.

Question: How could people believe that one candle would burn for eight days when they knew that it would be sufficient only for a day?

Answer: If we aspire to unity, we are not interested in anything except to come to this state, within which the Creator is revealed. Then we reach the conditions of infinity and go to the next level of existence, where there is neither time nor space. And eight days is just an allegory, since there are eight Sefirot from the level of Bina to the level of Malchut.

Question: How can a person not think about what will happen tomorrow?

Answer: If you work for bestowal, tomorrow does not exist for you! There is no next moment! The most important is to give.

Tomorrow will disappear from your field of vision, mind, and calculations! It does not exist! You are included in the action of bestowal and are seemingly extended to everyone else. Nothing will remain in you. Your “I” simply disappears.

Then, in the next step, a new egoistic state appears. The same thing is repeated, like the wheel that moves forward, but at the same time revolves around itself.

Question: Under what circumstances is this possible?

Answer: It comes gradually, after many years and only from Above. But it will come. I can promise to all of my students that it will come true, and they will reach this state.

I think that together with them, I will still be able to go through their first steps in this ascent. This is the desire of every spiritual teacher who cannot abandon his child halfway. The teacher wants to guide his students across the desert so that they reach full bestowal, and they would not have any possibility of turning back, since the property of bestowal would reign in all their desires.

Then, they will develop their spiritual path on their own, with the next leader, like Moses and Joshua. But it is desirable for us to cross the desert together.

Question: How do you view the miracles from the material point of view? Let’s say, for many years, archaeologists seek confirmation of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, but find no traces. Indeed, something should have been left. In addition, there no evidence has been found of the 40 years of wandering of the nation of Israel in the desert.

Answer: Archaeologists find confirmation of these or other historical events when the time comes. Therefore in its time, they will suddenly find artifacts of history in the same place where they previously could find nothing. These discoveries are still ahead.
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From KabTV’s “Secretes of the Eternal Book” 12/17/14

Distant And Close

Question: It says: “Thou shalt not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people.”

Answer: You attain your complete correction thanks to the right connection with those who are like you, who have the same attributes and the inclination to connection, unity, and resemblance and equivalence to the Creator. Therefore, you should not struggle with yourself but internally so as to come in contact with others, which means” the children of thy people.”

You don’t need to reject anyone or anything anymore as you were commanded previously, but rather be integrally connected properly with others, adapt yourself to them by accepting all their attributes and their corrections as suitable for you in order to establish a system that is mutually and generally connected, a spiritual society.

A person has to constantly feel how he should change, what form he should take on under the influence of those who surround him, both from those who are close and those who are distant. Those who are distant are those who format you and put you together, and those who are close are those with whom you have to be formatted and put together so that you will be connected to them. It is because they dictate your external form so that like a piece in a puzzle you will fall into your right place.

You process attributes inside you which you can integrate with your whole nation, with all the attributes, desires, and thoughts that surround you. This is the very last mission, which can only be fulfilled if you already work on the connection with them by fulfilling the commandment of love thy friend as thyself.

This means that “distant” refers to working in the state of Hafetz Hesed in which you don’t receive anything but only format yourself internally with the help of the attribute ofbestowal that comes from them, which builds you on the level of Bina and makes you absolutely neutral. Thus, you balance the ego.

When this attribute comes through those who are close, which means from those who are in direct contact with you, you already build yourself on the basis of your connection with them. In the first case it is to bestow in order to bestow and in the second case it is to receive in order to bestow.

Question: How can I bring someone else inside me if I only love myself?

Answer: You don’t need to bring anyone inside you, but simply feel everyone like yourself.

The Torah speaks about the fact that you have to attain that and there is a condition for this attainment, but first you are given commandments, which means clear and accurate rules of the upper world and then the methods to fulfill them.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/9/14

Blocking The Oxygen For The World

Question: It is written that the war is conducted by the upper force and not by us. Exactly how does this work?

Answer: The upper force is the force of connection, the force of loveand bestowal. It works to the degree that we make it possible for it to work, when we equalize with it in our characteristics. To the degree that our yearning is directed externally towards others, to that degree it acts through us.

And if we are not connected with all the rest and don’t intend to live with love and bestowal and this force is not prepared to be extended our way, we block its passage. Then the nations of the world blame us for their troubles.

Question: From this does it follow that ultimately everyone will want to connect with love?

Answer: Yes, it is only that the people of Israel are not letting them do it. We must make it possible for this force to be spread, to be revealed in us and connected between us. It is just as the Creator is revealed to a creature. It is written: “The one who makes peace on high will make peace among us.” And then with that aspiration we will open to the nations of the world. The Creator is interested in everyone knowing Him, “from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31:33).

Question: Can the war be an opportunity to reach this?

Answer: The war is designed for only one thing: to obligate us to think about what is not okay with us. For both our neighbors and the world in general are going out against us in an increasingly clear and obvious way. They will no longer be friendly; on the contrary, with time their attitude will only worsen.

Yet before this they were sympathetic to us because they let the Jews return to their land and the nations of the world hoped that somehow we would realize our destiny. The forces of nature worked through them in this way.

Yet today, after 66 years, it is already clear to everyone that we are not setting ourselves to this task. On the contrary, from day to day we block the “channel of abundance” that was supposed to reach everyone through us. And so the complaints of the world increase; so they stand with their backs toward us and support our enemies. This trend will only go and grow stronger, so much so that nobody in the world will remain who supports us, including the Jews who live abroad.

Question: Well, all of the signs suggest that already for some time we should have given the abundance to the world, and have not. Why is that?

Answer: It is because we are not connected. If we connect, then we will create a kind of “conduit,” a direct passage through which the Light will pass to the nations of the world.

Question: When a person stands before a complex problem, he tries with all his might to solve it in his way or moves towards searching for another means. How do we approach this work on connection psychologically?

Answer: The Upper Light, or the Ohr Ein Sof (Light of Infinity), must pass through the “conduit” of Israel to the nations of the world. Yet we are blocking this channel, we are stopping the Light from entering above and exiting below. As a result of this, our “pipe” instead of being a bridge becomes an insulating component between the Light of Infinity and the world.

Even though they don’t know about this, they feel this subconsciously, even including those who have never been involved with us. And from this are derived all the accusations they come to us with. And truly, following the lack of Upper Light, they experience troubles and blame us for them.

Essentially they are telling us that we are very important for the world, more important than what they are themselves because they depend upon us. But we are blocking the abundance to them; we are blocking the vitality. How else is it possible to relate to people like this?

Yet the people of Israel don’t want to be aware of it. They don’t even know or recognize what is preventing them. If they knew this, they would act differently. They must live inunity, in Arvut (mutual guarantee), then the passage of the abundance will be opened and the Upper Light will pass from Olam Ein Sof (the World of Infinity) to the nations of the world and will fulfill everyone. As it is written by the prophets: this way the whole world will attain peace and calm.

Question: Together with this, how must we relate to the external enemy today?

Answer: We must understand that we must kill the evil within us. But in the meantime, due to a lack of choice and a lack of energy and time, we must also get rid of the external enemy. But this is only because we have not yet succeeded in acting in the right way within ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write, The Wars of Israel” 7/21/14

A People Woven From The Thread Of An Idea

Question: Recently a new wave of violent riots has swept over us. Stone throwing, stabbings, and vehicles running over pedestrians have become murder weapons.

The level of tension has risen, fear has returned to the streets, undermining the complex system of relationships that connect us with Israeli Arabs. They live alongside us, among us, and we cannot isolate ourselves from them, and their terrorist attacks have literally broken into our home.

Is it possible to say that recent events are the result of a new situation, a new trend, with which we must contend?

Answer: First of all, I would like to note that everything that I will say is derived from an understanding of the general world system within which is the nation of Israel and its population, from the wisdom that I have researched and acquired, and not from social research and analytic reports.

I won’t enter into these areas, I won’t research this population or another, and I am far from the events in the field. Besides that, I am not a psychologist who precisely understands the Jewish and Arab minds.

In other words, I will not express my opinion on the level of this world. So I feel myself free, and, on the other hand, everything that I will say later on is the truth in my eyes and not my personal truth. This is the nature of things; this is how the Creator, the higher power, the higher supervision and management, is behaving towards us. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything is managed by the system of nature that is also called El-okim. In Gematria (numerology), the value of the two words “HaTeva” (nature) and “Elokim”(the divine) are identical.

This system was originally found in a state that was very similar to general chaos. Kabbalah calls it by the name of Shevira (breaking) or the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. Since then, the general system, which is similar to our universe, gradually got along according to laws that became increasingly clear.

They were not at work previously because the material suitable for scrutiny didn’t exist. For example, as long as there wasn’t any vegetation, relationships between the still and the vegetative could not be discovered. As long as animals didn’t exist, the laws of behavior of the animate and the relationships between the animate and the other levels could not be discovered. And especially, as long as the human species didn’t exist, lawfulness could not be discovered in the life and development of the human species, which also determines its unprecedented influence on the natures of the still, vegetative, and animate.

In other words, we see that at the same time that all materials develop, they are organized within the framework of a most precise system. And this system continues towards balance and a permanent state. All of its parts necessarily get their own place and form of expression. According to scientific data and as far as it seems, in the future this system will ultimately become balanced and reach inner harmony.

Besides this, we have discovered various phenomena in human society that have developed in unique ways and rates in contrast to the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. While humanity has made a quantum leap within some thousands of years and especially in the last century, in contrast to this, nature hasn’t gone through meaningful changes during that time.

We are generally finding newer and newer phenomena that typify a system that is aspiring towards balance and which indicate its imbalance.

In time they will be revealed in increasingly detailed, subtle, and personal forms. We see how much the general system takes the imbalance between parts of the system into account and takes care of them.

In this way, we observe the process through which all of humanity is passing on the background of the still, vegetative, and animate levels that have scarcely changed.

This is a natural process that is called “in its time” in Kabbalah. In other words, it happens in its own time since everything happens according to a natural rate, like a watch that measures the rate of changes similar to the signal generator in a computer. The interesting thing in this picture is the development of various parts of humanity and the relationships between them. Before us is spread the historical process through which various peoples, groups, continents, and so forth have passed. Development intrigues us, even though we cannot always see the reasons for it. Also, the conclusions we draw are in doubt.

And so, first we watched what was happening, and after that everyone had different philosophical and historical opinions. But a unique phenomenon was discovered here—the people of Israel.

The main uniqueness is its presence throughout all of history. In other words, this ongoing phenomenon is not clear. How can this be? After all, this didn’t happen with other peoples. This is strange, especially considering the troubles that were visited upon this people in the forms of exile, hatred towards it, internal conflicts, and so on.

In particular it should be noted that the whole world stands against the people of Israel. Everyone hates them, wants to annihilate them, and everyone acknowledges that they are not prepared to do this. They declare openly:

1. We want to annihilate Israel.
2. We are not prepared to annihilate Israel.
3. We depend upon the people of Israel.
4. Specifically, the people of Israel bring us troubles and problems and we are not prepared to do anything to them. We are weak in contrast to this nation.

It is possible to cite many claims and other oddities here. And the strangest phenomenon is the birth of the nation, which was essentially an absolutely artificial birth.

The rest of the nations arose naturally from tribes that populated various areas on the face of the globe on the basis of a common territory, common culture, common education, common and language, and later, on the basis of a common history. Smaller and larger nations appeared, and after that they combined into various religions and faiths, with everything continuing as usual.

On the other hand, the people of Israel appeared in a strange way from a unique organization, from an unprecedented social phenomenon. One person called Abrahamthrew a unique idea at humanity, which was a thought, an ideal, a vision that was connected to the role and function of the entire human species. He gathered special people from all of humanity for whom the essence of life, the goal of life, and an identity with the higher power and its discovery were important. This means that the idea upon which the nation was founded was very high, unnatural and “out of this world” as it is called. This isn’t saying that we must live in some isolated place, maintain our borders, and defend ourselves from our neighbors, etc.

These were not connections between people based upon material corporeal beastly factors, nor on normal corporeal needs. The people of Israel were founded around absolutely different principles, on another philosophical, conceptual higher level relative to the rest of the nations.

They didn’t even have a dwelling place. Rather Abraham simply said to them that connection around the spiritual idea demanded them to live as one person with one heart, all of Israel are friends, and also to live in fraternity and discover within them the characteristic of bestowal and love. So according to these principles, their place on the face of the globe was in the land of Canaan. So they headed there!

The residence of the nation was determined by its goal and according to its adaptation to the characteristics of the land. The artificial people populated an artificial place. So the connection between the people of Israel and its place is very unique. As long as the people maintain the concept of unity, it lives here [Israel], and the moment that it doesn’t stand on the spiritual conditions of one person with one heart and love of others, it enters into a dissonance to its residence and the place regurgitates it.

Never throughout history have we seen a precedent like this, that a particular territory, meaning something inanimate, reacts like this to those who are dwelling within it.

There are a multitude of other strange phenomena connected to this people. Without being aware of and feeling their character and their place, they will not succeed in understanding what is happening to them. And the role of history is to give a time and a place to the people of Israel to carry out its unique historical mission.

In this stage it is up to us to understand what Abraham taught his students. He explained to them a plan exists according to which the people of Israel must reach a particular level of correction, to be like one person with one heart through gathering. In continuation, they will need to pass through a Shevirah (breaking). In other words, instead of a good connection between them, they must discover the opposite state of separation and the internal and mental fragmentation.

According to this they passed through various situations with their neighbors, with the higher power that arranges everything. After that, during a period of exile and mutual distance, the people of Israel scattered among all the nations and did special preparatory work between them. After that they again gathered and again rose up to the level of connection, and with the same tendency, they attracted all of humanity towards connection. This is how history ends, meaning with the general correction of the human species. This is the goal of creation, the goal of existence of the human species in the state of this world.

For this to happen, a period of six thousand years has been allotted, beginning from the moment that a person with the name Adam discovered the program to the last person who will do the last correction and finish the historical process. And then this world will disappear, for it exists in our perception only because it is broken and without the right connections. And the moment that all of the broken parts become connected and the last among them becomes connected to them, the system will become united and circular. Then all of humanity will feel that it exists within a perfected and circular reality, in a state called the world to come. What will fill the people is called the Creator, the higher power, for they will attain it with the help of the connection between them, mutual bestowal and love along the entire path.

And so the historical role of the people of Israel is clear. They must go through various situations and according to this, they must function correctly to guide the whole world to the goal specified from the start. Without this nation it would be impossible to reach the goal. So it must be at the head of the process. It is not by chance that the letters of the word “Israel – ישראל” make up the phrase, “Li Rosh – לי ראש – I have a head.”

There were periods in which it was forbidden for the people of Israel to know its mission, so that they wouldn’t be disturbed from assimilating among the nations of the world in the period of exile. In other words, they were in a state of detachment from connection.

But today, If we want to explore the Jewish people at every moment throughout history, it is up to us to take into account the general program of human society and compare it to reality, to what extent the people of Israel maintain the program or, on the contrary, oppose the program. The range of its historical participation moves between -100% and +100%.

It depends on the people of Israel, it depends on how much they attract themselves towards fulfilling their role and attracting everyone else towards it. And if it doesn’t work correctly and in time, then this delay is expressed in the negative forces of nature that don’t get engaged in connection in the general system of connection, that are not counterbalanced by positive forces.

For the people of Israel, their role is to balance the opposites at all times. If they don’t balance them at every moment throughout history, then both the plus and minus work on them negatively. The minus pushes them from behind and the plus pulls them forward. And when the people don’t agree with either of them, don’t want to take the initiative, and don’t want lead the whole world after it, then as a result of this there will be the many great problems and disasters that continue to this very day.

But a unique time has arrived. After a long exile of two thousand years, we can and must reveal to all the people of Israel and to the whole world what is on the agenda. It is up to us to tell everyone:

“Friends, we are on the threshold of a critical period because the reins have been placed in our hands, which are the two forces of nature, the plus and the minus. They were prepared for us and with their help it is up to us to reach an integral connection between us, to bring society into harmony and rise to the level of bestowal and love ourselves. It is in our hands. The two forces will help us in such a way that even the negative force will become a ‘helpmate against’ (Genesis 2:18). The task is great. So come, let’s begin to implement it.”

In this manner, it is up to us to approach the entire world, ourselves, and also the higher power with the help of all means at our disposal. We have been given freedom of choice; we have been given a program and a process including a script that describes the happy ending in the completion of correction. So we must see the present situation, not from this trend, but from the higher aim of the program and to understand what it demands from us.

By watching in this manner and not from the point of view of the communications media or the point of view of the psychology of our neighbors, I am looking at what is happening today in Israel. What is the reason to go deeply into the Israeli and Arab mentality if this whole picture is absolutely superficial? Analysis like this doesn’t make it possible to extinguish the fire. We must understand the natural trends at work in these processes and it is then that we will truly know how to solve the problem.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/13/14

Discovering Your Creation

We learn how the creature deteriorated from one point of unification to separation, to gradual fragmentation, to the discovery of greater and greater forces, to building a system of connection between the parts. Even before the shattering, there existed various characteristics and the forces between them.

In such a way we learn about the whole system of connections between the future creature and the Creator, between the characteristic of reception and the characteristic of bestowal, and about the cooperation between them. This is the system of higher forces, higher worlds. And to make it possible for us to truly exist, despite and in contradiction to the Creator, a shattering happened and our present state was created. From that we began to advance towards trembling.

It must be understood that this fear, this awe, and concern, this anxiety are the measuring tools with whose help I feel the level, the world in which I am found, and whether I am concerned about myself in our world or I am concerned about others in the higher world.

In general, it is a great and wonderful fortune that we were given our situation in the world where we feel the ego that separates us, because with its help we can measure how close or far we are from the exalted goal. This is expressed in a comparison of the beastly fear in our world, an apparent concern about the next world, and dread on a higher level, where we depart from the framework of our mundane concern and logic and are concerned only for what is found outside of us. Through this we begin to resemble the Creator. It is precisely here that a person measures his state, the level on which he is found. Clearly when we are in an egoistic state, we are not prepared to come out of it unless a higher force acts upon us, which is the characteristic of bestowal (the Creator) in a form that we call Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). It illuminates us from a distance, in secret, because we do not have characteristics that are similar to it. We awaken its influence on us, only to the degree of our efforts to approach each other.

This is an internal, voluntary movement. It is as if I am trying to enter into the feelings and mind of every friend. I withdraw from his external appearance, the external problems and characteristics, and everything that touches upon his mundane characteristics. Only his heart interests me, his yearning for detachment from himself towards connection with others and rising above his beastly state. This is to say, it is what raises a person above his donkey. It is up to me to feel what is happening within his heart and connect it with my heart.

It is the same thing regarding the mind. The various characteristics, thoughts, intentions, and problems don’t interest me, only what belongs to our development. In that way, it is up to me to take from my friend, his point in the heart, his point in the mind, and connect these two points with my two points.

In myself as well, I examine and emphasize only my yearning for the Creator (my point in the heart) and my mental orientation towards Him (my point in the mind). That is how all of us connect with one heart and mind to something whole, as if we are building a spiritual likeness from ourselves composed of heart and mind.

So where is our dread? The dread is when we succeed in building our common point, the pure heart that we have assembled and the mind that we have assembled, and we rise as much as possible, as much as we are detached from what we imagined for ourselves in the mundane sense. A permanent dread is awakened in us as to whether we will succeed in maintaining our collective structure.

This happens within every group of ten, and after that in all of the groups of ten together. Later, our convention will be connected with all the mirror conventions that are held in parallel with us in one spiritual space.

We must hold onto all of this within us and be constantly concerned that this structure will be felt more and more as real in every moment. In the beginning, it is only some kind of a hint, but gradually it becomes thicker and more solid. We even find some new characteristics within our united heart and mind.

We truly begin to feel something, and then we feel the division of this perimeter into tenSefirot, meaning that we reach a spiritual structure within which we feel active forces, the Creator.

In this way we begin to feel Him and how He maintains our inner structure together, which is the ten Sefirot. All of us are included within this structure and each one feels the ten Sefirot within his particular individual perception, within his original spiritual characteristics, within the point in the heart and the mind.

Each one of us discovers his creation without disturbing each other. Our souls are included in each other and become connected so that eventually a general picture of theOlam Ein Sof (world of Infinity) is created.

We are already connected between us on levels that lead upward and the ten Sefirotbecome increasingly clear. Within them are discovered immense internal characteristics, combinations, coalitions, systems, and connections. Ultimately, all of these together become a Sefira that is composed of infinite emotional and intellectual connections.

In this way we reach attainment of the Creator, meaning attainment of the immense mind and emotion that fills this Sefira. This is the way that we must go together.

So the main thing is the characteristic of bestowal, and so we must fear falling into our mundane scrutinies, into our natural corporeal concerns. In a convention we must limit this to the level of necessary subsistence only.

We are trying to reach the state of trepidation in this manner.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, Lesson 1

Soccer According To The General Rules Of Spirituality

Question: Suppose that you are a soccer coach. Some soccer team invites you for a year to help it become a better team. As a coach, what can you offer it in the field of group psychology?

Answer: My condition is I demand fifty million dollars! This immediately creates tension: Why so much? What intentions does he have? And I don’t say to anyone that at the last minute I will return the money to them. This is so that they will all be on their toes. They immediately see that I am exactly like them: I am interested in money, power, and honor. This is so that their attitude towards me will be as it is towards everyone.

Question: Now we will imagine how your daily life looks. In the evening the team has a game, what is your attitude towards that?

Answer: It is necessary to arrange a workshop one hour before training, the warm-up, and the game, before every team activity. Here we are talking about how to build such a team so that each one will react to the moves of the others without thinking about it. And so, from day to day, we connect and unite more and more, with this we build a connection above rejection.

This is because from the start there is rejection between us: competition, disagreement, jealousy, an orientation towards control and honor. Someone scores two goals and I don’t even score one, he gets a million and I don’t, and so on. But now we are talking differently. First of all we talk about making the same amount, no more and no less, we are building a homogeneous team. We don’t bury the personal desires of each one; rather, we build a connection above them.

This is a long training process that includes a multitude of activities. Ultimately, the feeling of the connection between them into a single whole itself becomes important for them. So the game becomes only a means for them. We reach the desired result: We play not for the sake of the game itself but for the sake of general harmony and the feeling of connection and unity. There are no differences between them; we exist like some kind of cloud, as one body with one heart. And the audience is also included in the action as if they are in a vortex, they connect with the team and feel the game as if it were alive. Regular soccer, in which there is nothing besides competition, finds a new life!

Question: How must I relate to a situation where a member of the group should have given me the ball and didn’t do that and ran towards the goal by himself?

Answer: At that moment you must control yourself, overcome your anger. You must play with him in complete harmony as if he were 100% right. At that moment you say to yourself that as far as it seems, he hasn’t understood his action correctly. It could be that he didn’t see the whole situation.

You behave with him the way you would towards a child. Let’s say that your child wants to help his mother wash the dishes, and eventually breaks a plate. But you forgive him because he wanted to do something good.

Question: This seems like a very high state requiring a change in education.

Answer: Right. Here it is important to understand the degree of responsibility. Now the soccer players could easily move from one team to another. But in bringing them up towards a spiritual reward, none of them will want or be able to abandon his friends.

It could be that they will come to us complaining that on the one hand, they became alive but on the other hand, in their profession they are no longer ready to work with other people. The rules of the game of this world often don’t leave us with much choice. But it is in our power to change them.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/26/14

What Is The Light?

Question: What is the Light that the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about?

Answer: The Light is phenomena in which the will to receive senses the upper force, spirituality, the Creator, the force that directs and governs the desire to receive.

The Light is the only power that actually exists. The other force is the desire to receive. There is nothing but these two powers. In other words, a desire to receive is something that is “locked” from within, whereas the Light is open and fills the entire universe.

Inside the desire, there is a tiny spark of the Light with the help of which the desire can connect with the external Light, thus directing the Light’s actions performed on the desire. An aspiration of the will to receive to be similar with the Light allows it to establish connection with the Light, thus triggering the Light’s impact upon it.

Question: Then what is the connection between the books written by Kabbalists and the Light?

Answer: All Kabbalistic books are the stories about the impact of the Light on the desire. There is nothing else besides it. The Light is the Creator, i.e., the force that rules everything. If one wants to approach the Light, one should learn how to build correct intentions on top of one’s desires so that the Light descends and conveys its properties to it, thus making one similar to the Light. In this case, one’s actions become similar to the Light even though one’s desires are opposite to it.

The entire wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Light to the creation.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

When The Ego Begins To Soften

Question: Each of us lives his life with the typical hardships, successes, and disappointments. We would like to make our lives happier, but the question is how? Where do we get the feelings of warmth and security?

Answer: The answer is in our mother’s womb, then in her arms, and then in the warmth of our home and hearth. We gradually draw away from it, but our inclination to preserve these forms remains, although we want to be independent in ourego.

What is more, we see that our ego begins to soften with regard to the way it feels the community that we establish as we participate in the discussion circles. I look at what I can give up in the ego. I don’t really annul it, but it simply begins to help me incorporate more and more in the life of the community and to feel that I belong to a greater circle. Thus, our ego can function as “help against.”

When we developed only egoistically, we continually destroyed our community life. However, now, when we restore the community—at least in the form of a game—the ego that feels the pressure begins to help us. It isn’t annulled, but takes on a new form. This is called integral community education.

Let’s hope that we will be able to attain it. We thus balance the general global force of nature, and it connects humanity according to our inner inclination. When the two forces that influence us become harmoniously balanced, our life will become happy.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/8/14

Editor's note

In the next five weeks I am traveling on holiday, thus the updates on the blog will be a bit irregular until the last week of January.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

There Is A Continuation To Life!

Question: What must we correct in our reality?

Answer: The created being is a desire to receive that is external to theCreator, external to the desire to bestow. We are created intentionally so that we would be able to discover our deficient state, our dependence on the desire to bestow, its limitations, and that we cannot exist even for a moment without being adhered to the desire to bestow.

This limitation evokes in us a yearning to know and attain the desire to bestow, and to be like it. It is because we discover the imperfection of our state and our constant need for something, and that we are totally limited and dependent. As long as we receive the Light, we feel alive, but, the moment we don’t receive Light, we feel increasingly worse, until we feel death. If we cease to receive the force of bestowal on the animate level, our body dies. We simply are dependent totally on the force of bestowal. This stimulation brings us to demand revelation the upper force on the animate level and to find out on whom our animate body depends.

Thus, we discover that our corporeal body on the animate level depends on a higher level, and then we begin to look for this force of bestowal.

Throughout human history, we believe that our evolution is leading us to something good, to a better state. This isn’t true. Our evolution is intended to bring us to the conclusion that we are limited. The more we advance, the more we feel how limited, lowly, and defective we are in every aspect and in every sense. This makes us realize the need for the attainment of a state that is more sublime than ours, the next level above ours, the one on which I depend now.

Therefore, a person who reaches the wisdom of Kabbalah asks, “What is the point of my life?” This question pushes him forward and obliges him to clarify, “What am I living for? Why am I alive? What is the secret of life and the essence of life?” A person may have everything in his corporeal life, but if his life has no meaning, no point, he sees no reason to live.

Statistically, depression, drugs, and so on are more prevalent today, and it isn’t just about individuals, but multitudes who are asking the question about the meaning of life and cannot find an answer. This is also one of the signs that the wisdom of Kabbalah can be revealed.

It is because it impossible to get an answer to the question of what we are living for if we don’t discover that there is a continuation to life!
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

A Butterfly On Mt. Sinai

Question: The disintegration of society that we are now witnessing inIsrael and all over the world reminds us of the birth of a butterfly. First there is the caterpillar, which lives for a while, eats plants, and is happy.

But at a certain point the caterpillar reaches the end and cannot fill itself anymore. Then it turns into a chrysalis and enters a state of darkness closing itself inside a cocoon where its body begins to disintegrate.

The caterpillar ceases to be what it was before. Scientists have discovered that the genes that will later turn it into a totally different creature are already in the caterpillar. After a period of chaos and disintegration, a beautiful butterfly suddenly emerges from the cocoon; a winged creature that is much more developed.

Could it be that we are in the period of the cocoon now and therefore see how everything around us is out of balance and falling apart?

Answer: It is indeed so, but in order to become a beautiful butterfly, we have to change. We can reach these changes either in a pleasant, easy, and short way by the connection between us, or by war and terrible problems that will force us to unite. This means that we can go through this process passively or actively.

Comment: So in the end we will connect with or without war.

Answer: Yes, but there is a huge difference. After all, it will not be just another war, but a nuclear war.

Question: And if we don’t connect?

Answer: It cannot be. It is already in our genes, just like the caterpillar is supposed to become a beautiful butterfly in the end. We also have the genes according to which we have to bring the whole world to correction and are already imprinted in the genes of human society, in our internal program. We only have to carry it out.

We have two options, which are good or bad. The bad option is through wars and sufferings and the good option is by reaching the fulfillment of the wisdom of Kabbalahby ourselves, attaining the force of connection by it to draw the force, the Light that Reforms unto ourselves. It says: “I have created the evil inclination, I have created theTorah as a spice, since the Light in it reforms.”

Question: You speak about the Torah, so is it about religion?

Answer: No. The Torah is light, the force we discover inside the circle, which welds us together. The force that reforms is called the Torah. It is not a religious concept at all. It isn’t a book or a parchment that has words written on it, but an inner force.

The egoistic inclination doesn’t let us connect, while the Torah is the Upper Light, the means to correct the evil inclination, which is felt only by those who sense that they have to connect with others and cannot do so. It is as if our whole nation sat in one big circle of eight million people and everyone thought only about the fact that they cannot unite. It is a fact that if there is no external pressure, the society remains separated and detached.

Our mission is to move from state one to state two. State one is our current state of insecurity and of no future as a result of the lack of connections between us because of our egoistic nature.

There are two ways of achieving state two. The right way is the way that Kabbalists tell us about. They say that if we want to advance, we have to connect. If we sit in circles and begin to discuss the issue of how to be “as one man in one heart,” we will discover how much we are against this idea. This resistance we feel towards connection is called the evil inclination.

The evil inclination is not revealed to a person in his ordinary life, when he disrespects everyone, but only when he wishes to connect to others. Only then does he see that he doesn’t want this connection and is repelled by it, although he understands that he must reach unity despite his natural repulsion.

We felt it during the last military operation “Enduring Rock,” since we could unite only under external pressure. The moment the pressure was gone, we immediately returned to our initial state and began to quarrel and fight. So what can we do? After all we need to connect!

What is actually lacking at the moment is the recognition that we need connection. We need to widely publicize and explain that our good future depends on the unity of the nation and that otherwise we are facing disaster.

If we discover that we cannot unite, although we want to, we need the Torah as a means for attaining unity. This means that we are at the foot of Mt. Sinai which is a mountain of hatred. We want to reach unity, but we cannot do so since a high mountain of mutual hatred separates us.

Then we are worthy of the receiving of the Torah, which is the revelation of the force of connection that should come and connect us. This means that the light of the Torah reforms. It is a force of unity, a force of light and love. When it is revealed, we suddenly begin to feel closeness, dependence, and a mutual connection between us.

Question: Where can we find this force?

Answer: This force is hidden in nature. Now too, it is among us, but we discover it only to the extent that we yearn to connect. This is what the whole Torah is about. Thus every time Kabbalists connect into a group, they discovered the Creator, the upper force of connection.

Question: Is this circle also suitable for people who are not religious?

Answer: The circle is suitable for everyone, not only people who are not religious, but also for women and people from every nation. After all, the Israeli nation has to be a light unto the nations, teach everyone the wisdom of connection, and reveal to everyone that the Creator is the upper nature. During the last war, it was actually the women and the mothers who voiced the call for unity of the nation.
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From the program “A New Life” 9/02/14